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Medium
Medium is an American television drama that aired on Syndication from January 3, 2005 to June 1, 2009 and moved to Syndication from September 25, 2009 to January 21, 2011. Plot "Medium" centered on Allison DuBois, a mother of three who has the gift of being able to talk to dead people as well as foresee events and witness past events in her dreams. When she begins working for Phoenix District Attorney Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) as an intern, Allison has a dream related to a murder in Texas, the successful solving of which convinces Devalos and others working in the D.A.'s office (as well as herself and her husband Joe) that her gift is real. One challenge is convincing Devalos (and other doubters in the criminal justice system) that Allison's psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving crimes. The information comes to her in dreams or in cryptic visions that sometimes do not mean what they initially suggest. The other is convincing Joe that her nightmares are visions based in reality and that she's not simply neurotic. In police investigations, Allison often accompanies Det. Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt), who initially did not believe in her gift. She sometimes bends the rules when she is determined to stop a crime about which she has had a vision. Additionally, Allison has helped and been helped by Captain Kenneth Push of the Texas Rangers (the first law-enforcement person to whom Allison revealed her gift) and Cynthia Keener of AmeriTips, a nationwide private detective agency. In season four, it was revealed that Cynthia had a missing daughter and Allison's dreams showed that Cynthia's daughter was dead. Cynthia made a choice to kill the murderer of her daughter and go to prison. Cynthia later appeared in season five to help Allison on a case. Also during this season, it was revealed that Lynn DiNovi, Lee's live-in lover and an assistant to the Mayor of Phoenix, had become pregnant with Lee's child. In the season five finale, Allison discovers that she has a tumor on her brainstem and in order prevent the brutal murders of her family in the future, she risked her life as she postponed the critical surgery, fearing it would prevent her from solving the case. During Allison's operation, the tumor was successfully removed (except for a small piece deeply embedded in her brainstem), Joe is told that Allison is in a coma and may not survive. In the sixth season premiere episode, Allison awoke from the coma and was suffering the consequences of postponing the surgery. Her psychic abilities slowly begin to resurface as a form of déjà vu. At the end of the episode, Allison is also slowly recovering her physical abilities. Since the season six premiere, Allison's eldest daughter, Ariel has taken the role of nurturing her siblings Bridgette and Marie. Ariel also falls victim to a body possession from which she recovers with Allison's help. After her surgery, Allison gets back to her normal routine working alongside Devalos and Lee, with possible side effects of her surgery affecting her dreams. Also, Lee proposes to Lynn. As the season progresses, Ariel's transformation from a young girl into a mature woman was shown in the episode "Time Keeps on Slippin'" where she solves a crime in the future. In the season finale, Allison receives a letter from her neurologist that she needs to be seen about her brain tumor. Meanwhile, Ariel also receives an acceptance letter from a university away from home. The episode begins when Joe awakens to Allison dead in their bed, having died from her tumor during the night. As the family mourns her death, Allison contacts Ariel from the other side, asking her to do one last thing for her before she passes on. However, Ariel decides to follow her own path. She turns to alcohol and leaves Phoenix without telling anyone. Suddenly, Allison awakens in her bed alive, the same morning Joe found her dead. At the end of the episode, Allison, Joe, Ariel, Devalos and his wife Lily, are seen celebrating Lynn and Lee's wedding, all toasting to their bright futures. In the seventh and final season, a division is created between Allison and Joe because of their desired career paths. At work, Manuel wants to run for Mayor but fears the publicity of his daughter's suicide will be used against his family; however, Lily agrees to help him campaign. Allison wishes to go back to law school because she may lose her job if Manuel is elected. Meanwhile, Joe wants to obtain an MBA, but they cannot afford for both of them to attend school. Despite Allison's wishes, Joe enrolls in school, not knowing that Allison has done the same. In the episode, "Native Tongue," Allison cannot understand any word said to her, testing Joe's patience. At the end of the episode, Joe and Allison reconcile, but Joe's unhappiness is still evident. Ariel leaves for college. Scanlon's brother's ghost comes to entice him into doing wrong. Scanlon's actions nearly end his relationship with Allison. In the episode "Blood on the Tracks", Joe's mother Marjorie has been diagnosed with brain cancer. When Joe sees his mother in the hospital, she tells him she's been reassured by Allison, who had lied to her in season four's "Burn Baby Burn" about her chances of survival. During that same night, Marjorie dies and Allison and the kids join Joe in Michigan, who is staying at Marjorie's home. In the middle of the night, she is visited by Marjorie's ghost who warns her of upcoming "darkness" in her life, but before she can elaborate, Joe enters the room and Marjorie disappears, leaving Allison in fear of the darkness to come. In the series finale, Allison receives a phone call from Joe in the midst of a plane crash that leaves no survivors. The episode cuts to seven years later, at which time she is an attorney building a case against a Mexican drug dealer. Allison and Marie (now a teenager) live alone. Marie cannot forgive her father for never visiting them as a ghost, something that has plagued Allison all these years. Through her dreams, Allison sees that Joe never died, but washed up on the coast of Mexico with amnesia. A crooked cop had concealed Joe's past and was using him as an unsuspecting drug mule to transport narcotics. Against Devalos' orders, Allison strikes a deal with the drug dealer to learn Joe's location. The two are reunited, but at this point Allison wakes up in the present to see Joe's ghost. He informs her that his plane's engine failed after it departed Hawaii and that no one survived the crash. Joe sent Allison a dream of her life seven years in the future to show her that she could live an enriching, independent life. However, Allison's love for Joe overpowered the original vision and crafted an alternate reality in which she found Joe alive. Joe's ghost leaves as Allison cries, unable to accept her husband's death. The episode cuts to 41 years later, showcasing photos of the life that Allison has had. As Allison listens to a voice mail from her great-granddaughter, she slumps in her chair. In death, she is reunited with Joe, who has waited for her and they kiss. Cast *Patricia Arquette as Allison Dubois *Jake Weber as Joe Dubois *Miguel Sandoval as D.A. Devalos *Sofia Vassilieva as Ariel Dubois *Maria Lark as Bridget Dubois *Madison and Miranda Carabello as Marie DuBois *David Cubitt as Detective Lee Scanlon *Anjelica Huston as Cynthia Keener Season overview Production Reception The series premiere of "Medium" received 16.13 million viewers and a 6.3 rating in the 18–49 demo against CSI: Miami's 18.17 million and 6.6 rating. The show was a consistent performer during its first season and landed in the Nielsen Top 20 with an average of 13.9 million viewers. It remained in its original time slot for the second season when the network announced its Fall 2005 schedule. Throughout the season, the series experienced a decline in viewership, pulling an average of 11 million viewers. In April of 2006, "Medium" was renewed for a third season, but was missing from Syndication's Fall 2006 schedule. The show was slated to return in early 2007 and in October, it was announced that production would resume immediately for a third season start-up on November 15, 2006, replacing the time slot vacated by "Kidnapped". The show's move to the Wednesday time slot (opposite Syndication' "CSI: NY" and Syndication's "Lost" led to some ratings erosion) in comparison to the ratings success of the first two seasons, with year-end ratings for the third season dipping into single-digit millions of viewers. Despite the ratings decline on Wednesdays, "Medium" was seen by the network as a reliable self-starter, building on its then lead-in "Crossing Jordan." The ratings decline put the series on the bubble for renewal, but showed signs of life when Syndication requested six additional scripts in April of 2007. On May 7, 2007, it was announced that "Medium" would be renewed for a fourth season with an undetermined premiere date & number of episodes; it was the seventh series to be renewed by Syndication (behind solid performers "Heroes" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"). A week later, Syndication announced that "Medium" would move to the Sunday 9:00 p.m. time slot upon its return in January 2008, but the news on the series' return didn't come until December 2007 when the network announced that the fourth season would begin in January in its original Monday 10:00 p.m. time slot. News on the series' return did not come until December 2007 when Syndication announced that the fourth season would begin in January in its original Monday 10 p.m. time slot despite the WGA Strike of 2007, which forced the show to cease production, allowing for only nine segments/episodes to be filmed. Scheduling returning mid-season shows in timeslots where they were previously successful was a pattern for Syndication during the strike: "Law & Order" returned to Wednesdays at 10:00 and "The Apprentice" was back on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. With the ratings improvement, "Medium" demonstrated in its fourth season after returning to Mondays, it was one of the first series to be renewed in an early announcement in April 2008 from Syndication regarding its 2008–09 season. Similar to the previous season, the show was initially scheduled to move to the Sunday night line-up; however, a December 2008 press release revealed that the show's fifth season would air in the series' original Monday night 10:00 p.m. time slot. After some ratings erosion during its fifth season, Syndication renewed "Medium" for an abridged sixth season in early May 2009; however, within a week negotiations stalled over episode count and subsequently, Syndication decided not to renew the show despite the fact that it outperformed some of the network's renewed shows. Within 24 hours of Syndication's cancellation, Syndication (whose production arm produces the series) renewed "Medium" for a full 22-episode sixth season, placing it in the Friday at 9:00 p.m. slot between fellow Syndication in-house productions "Ghost Whisperer" (which had a similar theme to Medium) and "Numb3rs". Syndication first aired this series with a rerun episode on July 21, 2009 and the sixth season premiered on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9:00 pm. Throughout its sixth season, "Medium" and its lead-in "Ghost Whisperer" won their respective time slots on most Fridays, and each show took turns being the most-watched show of the night. As the season drew to a close, "Ghost Whisperer" was considered a definite renewal, whereas Medium was once again on the bubble for renewal. However, in a dramatic move from Syndication, the network announced on May 18, 2010, that "Medium" was renewed for a seventh season while seven other series (including "Ghost Whisperer") were canceled by the network. TVbytheNumbers.com speculated that the decision was made because "Medium" is fully owned by Syndication, while "Ghost Whisperer" was split between Syndication and Syndication. Upon its return in September 2010, "Medium" took over the Friday 8:00 p.m. slot vacated by "Ghost Whisperer". Cancellation On October 26, 2010, Syndication ordered that the seventh and final season of "Medium" was to be cut from 22 to 13 episodes. On November 15, 2010, Patricia Arquette told "Entertainment Weekly" that the show "got canceled" and had only two more episodes to shoot. She also said the writers were excited that they would be able to end the show properly On November 18, 2010, series creator Glenn Gordon Caron posted to both the Medium Facebook page and the CBS forums, stating that the show had been canceled and that the series finale would be broadcast on January 21, 2011. On December 20, 2010, Syndication confirmed the show's cancellation with a press release which also confirmed the series finale date of January 21, 2011. Accolades In 2005, Patricia Arquette won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" and the show has been nominated for various roles throughout its run on television. External links * Medium on Fandom * Medium on CBS Wiki (Fandom) Category:2000s television series Category:2005 debuts Category:2009 endings Category:Concluded series Category:2005 Category:2006 Category:2007 Category:2008 Category:2009 Category:Syndication